Combined Community Services is helping 1,100 to 1,250 students today with school supplies during its annual Tools For School event at the county fairgrounds, according to Director of Client Assistance Peggi Lisenbee-Wright. After today, school supplies will be available at CCS – while they last – to families who couldn’t attend the event. “To me, it’s a great event because the community people learn what’s available to them and we have a lot of volunteers,” she said. Tools For School started about 20 years ago with 300 kids. Patricia Stroup was the first person in line. She said she had been waiting since 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. “Because I have a big day today. One too many stops,” she explained as to why she was there so early. She has four kids she needed school supplies for, she said. While waiting, she said she kept busy by “keeping my kids in line, reading a book and watching movies in the van.” In 2014, she said she was 11th in line. Lisenbee-Wright said Tools For School was made possible by the generosity of the community and local companies. Medtronic had a bake sale and various other fundraisers during its shifts to raise money for the CCS event, Lisenbee-Wright said. It then brought CCS the cash donation at about 4 p.m. Tuesday. She said that just put them over the amount they needed for the school supplies. Lisenbee-Wright also thanked Kosciusko REMC, Kosciusko Community Hospital, Parkview Hospital, Old National Bank, Fiesta Hair Salon and the Lake City Roller Dolls for their contributions and volunteers. Meijer “just gave us a substantial donation,” Lisenbee-Wright said. About eight agencies and businesses – including Medication and Dental Assistance, Goodwill and CenturyLink – were on hand today to let people know what services they offer. Warsaw Community Schools Food & Nutrition Department provided breakfast. “REMC has for the last four or five years brought in 40 to 50 volunteers throughout the day to help,” Lisenbee-Wright said. “I love the community of this. It’s not just CCS handing out bookbags.” Every year the fairgrounds let CCS use the Home & Family Arts Building, which Lisenbee-Wright said they appreciate because it’s such a great venue to give out the school supplies. Fiesta Hair Salon has been providing haircuts at Tools For School for over 15 years. “They’re the dream team of haircuts,” Lisenbee-Wright said. Manager Lora Fisher said, “We started doing it and it was just fun, so we kept doing it every year to give back to the community.” She said the hair stylists love to see the delight on the kids’ faces when they get the fresh haircuts. “There’s a lot of little ones who say they never had a professional haircut,” Fisher said. Assisting Fisher with the haircuts today were Nancy Litral, Erika Loe, Angie Hendrickson, Deb Able and Donna Goble. “Erika and Deb are both former Fiesta employees but still are helping out today,” Fisher said. CenturyLink Retail Manager Troy Burns had a table at Tools For School to tell parents about the discounted Internet service it provides. “We can offer it based on income,” he said. “We’re here to let them know what they can get. Ultimately, if you qualify for free and/or reduced lunch, you should qualify for this as well,” he said. Lauren Byers, Goodwill Career Center manager, said she was there to let people know about what they offer. She said they can do resume building, interview coaching, provide people help in picking clothes for interviews, get discounts on those clothes at Goodwill and conduct job fairs. Goodwill is now offering computer classes and can help people get certified in Microsoft products. “We’re just here to help the community in any way we can,” Byers said. Medication and Dental Assistance Director Angie Summers said, “We help low-income individuals receive vouchers to receive their medications and have their dental needs taken care of.” It also does the annual Give Kids A Smile Day where kindergarten students get to visit the dentist. Today, it was giving out toothbrushes to the kids and kids dental exam information to parents. Several Old National Bank volunteers were passing out the school supplies this morning. John Warren, Old National community bank president, said, “It’s just a great community program. The need today is pretty evident.” He said CCS, KREMC and a lot of community members have done a lot to provide Tools For School for the kids. “It’s just so important,” Warren said. “It was one of our bank’s projects this year to help raise supplies for kids.”
